A Client’s Guide to the Future of Work

Digital technologies and platforms have reshaped both how business is conducted and the entire nature of business itself. Artificial intelligence is already replacing routine workforce tasks, and the sophistication of AI and machine learning will continue to evolve over the next few years. Software can predict our behaviour and anticipate our needs. The way people live and work is changing and will continue to change, and even why they work and the purpose of work itself.

We spoke with Redline’s Managing Director, Martin Crapper to discuss where he believes the future of work is heading, and which are the most important aspects to consider to futureproof your work force.

“At Redline we’ve talked to thousands of employers over the last 30 years, conducting interviews and surveys as we try to figure out best practices, and what really works for our clients to drive performance and employee engagement. Throughout our research, something new always comes up. There’s always something to talk about because of the impact of technology in the workplace, the impact of business cycles and the way business is operated is changing.” says Martin.

According to The CIPD’s report Organisations urged to future-proof their recruitment strategies for 2017 and beyond, 75% of UK HR professionals report recruitment difficulties. The research highlights the need for smarter, more targeted recruitment strategies. The research found that UK businesses expect competition for well-qualified talent to increase over the next three years, as a result of the UK’s decision to leave the EU.

Martin continues: “In the recruitment industry, there are wide-ranging conversations about why the future of work is important. The overall consensus is that the future of work is focussed on two common factors. Firstly, it is the political issues around income inequality and low productivity, and people asking “Why is this happening?” At the same time, artificial intelligence, robotics, and technology is advancing at an almost exponential rate, driving people to question “What is happening to the workforce and how will the workplace adapt to this new digital world? What will work look like over the next couple of years? Will we all be replaced by machines? Will we all be talking to our computers all day every day? Will we even have jobs?” That’s really kind of the discussion we are having with our clients and candidates.”

“Jobs are already changing and organisations are getting much flatter with people being far more connected. We are all becoming more augmented by technology, whether it be our phone or computer, or some AI software. They are making our jobs different but they are not necessarily making them distinct. You would think with all this technology entering the workforce we need to become software engineers. But actually, the opposite is happening. The jobs being created are jobs that focus on the essential human skills: listening, convincing, selling, communicating, designing and curating. There are now jobs being created to monitor and train robots, for example, to help AI systems get smarter.”
“We continuously ask clients what they think will happen to the future of work? Most Technology and Engineering companies are automating many processes and expect the businesses to be ‘fully automated’ within the next 3 to 5 years. They know that there is a lots of technology being acquired and as this happens, new jobs will be created.”

How can people future-proof their careers?

“The big issue for individuals is to be comfortable with continuous reinvention and continuous learning.” says Martin. “For example, if you are a Java programmer, you more than likely experienced being a hot commodity a few years ago, however this has cooled significantly today. Technology has forced the learning of new programming languages and you may have to become more of a ‘full-stack’ engineer. Now technology is even more advance, most Java Programmers are learning about AI too. It’s just the same for software engineers who have not yet grasped open source development or machine learning or even salespeople who didn’t learn Salesforce, these candidates have ended up falling behind due to not reinventing themselves.”

“It doesn’t matter what job you are in, you have to be comfortable with continuously learning and reinventing yourself. It can be quite frightening for workers who look at the earnings, the potential they have to make money, who invest time and money into learning something new, that ends up being a scarce skill for a couple of years, but this is increasingly the norm. Often we may find we are in a in a job where somebody less experienced than us knows things you don’t know and suddenly tenure alone is not worth as much as you thought.”

“My recommendation is don’t be afraid to reinvent yourself. I’ve reinvented myself at least two or three times in my career. It’s really like surfing. You catch a wave, you ride it into the shore, and then you have got to be able to paddle back up and catch the next one. We are all going through that multiple times in our working life now.”

What should our client organisations be thinking about?

One is to redesign the organisation around teams and networks, not around a hierarchy. In the world of work today, the digital world we live in, people interact in small teams and they can share information and collaborate instantaneously anywhere. The idea that you have to go to Senior Management to get permission to do something and then you have to ask them all the time and that your Senior Manager actually knows what you are supposed to be doing, that’s not actually the way the world works anymore. There’s been a radical change. We have spoken with numerous clients who have implemented redesigning their organisation for the future. They have changed the roles that people have and are changing the structure. This way they are creating more of a networked organisation.

The second issue is that we are in a strange period where we haven’t all figured out how to productively use the technology we have. We’re happy to use it and we’re spending a lot of time on it, but we’re not yet getting more work done. Many businesses are concerned about this and struggle to accurately measure the results, at Redline, we believe in creating a meaningful, productive employee experience. We are close to all the employees and try to understand their needs and focus on the individual journeys and the individual obstacles each person has to achieve theirs and their team goals. We do this by making the workplace more collaborative, simpler, and more meaningful to people. We focus on the wellness and health and not just business productivity, but human productivity.

Redline offer knowledge-led, tailor-made recruitment programmes to suit clients’ specific needs. We adopt a ‘partnership’ approach to ensure a detailed understanding of clients' recruitment objectives and requirements. For more information regarding how we can help your high technology or engineering biased business, please contact Martin Crapper on 01582 878803 or email MCrapper@RedlineGroup.com.